Misfortune
by Sail the Ocean
Summary: My name is Sakura. I'm the love child of the most infamous man in all the five nations. My life is spiraling downward by the second and I don't know how to get a grip of it. This is my story. Saku-Multi
1. Prologue

_**Misfortune**_

**I DO NOT, NOR HAVE I EVER CLAIMED TO OWN NARUTO.**

**(A/N; Okay, Some OOC-Ness. Cannot be helped, story was inspired by some other story, can't fuckin' remember what It was called though, so nobody drill me about 'copying' another story or some shit, the only similarities will be that Sakura is the product of Pein & Konan's relationship, yo.)**

_Prologue;_

…**..**

_My name is Sakura Fuuma. The last name is simply a pleasantry, I promise you. I never want to be associated with my clan or my father, I hate them both equally, well probably more my father than the clan. I just assumed that if you knew that, it would make swallowing this story a bit easier. It doesn't really make me feel better, I just don't want the people reading this, (Namely you, Naruto, since you probably found this mess of scrolls before anyone else, I highly doubt that after everything that happened that anyone would care enough to go back to my apartment.) to be too confused, although a confusing story mine is, although mostly unlucky…_

There I go, rambling again, (Ironic isn't it, Naruto? I always yelled at you for rambling on.)

My mother and father were the two people whom have destroyed our village, they might have destroyed the rest of them by now, last time I was close enough to tell was nearly a week ago… It seems like I've been gone for ages, when in reality it's only been a month, I'm so scared, I really, really am. I just want to go home, although I know I'm not welcome anymore.

Just let me explain… please, I don't expect forgiveness, or for you to even believe me anymore, let me tell you the story of my life, of how from the moment I was born, I was an omen of bad luck, trash.

My story starts after I was born, with my mother, Akatsuna no Konan….

…

"What do we do?" Pein said, his face contorted into annoyance and contemplation as he eyed the pink haired child in his lover's arms. This was all one big mistake, this _wasn't supposed to happen_! He did everything he could to keep from snarling at the child that Konan was rocking so gently in her arms, although the woman's honey-colored eyes were pink tinted from long hours of labor, and glazed over with great sadness.

"I do not know, Pein. We cannot allow Madara to hurt our child." She whispered, her arms tightening around her newborn daughter, rain falling relentlessly outside the tower, out in the frightening Ame weather.

"I know this, but he mustn't know the child was given up, he will merely want the child for her… gift." He spoke slowly, looking down to the child, the child that bore the lavender eyes of the Rennigan, and at such a young age, yielding it unconsciously, it was a miracle. It truly was, but he was too blinded with disappointment- mostly in himself for making such a foolish decision allowing Konan to keep the child- to notice the gift he had been given.

"Someone will search out the child, once they see it, they will try to pursue her, perhaps take it from her." Konan sighed, placing the sleeping newborn into the small crib that rested beside her bed as she began folding origami swans in her hands, a habit she had formed for times of great stress and sadness.

"Jariya will also come, he may be an old fool, but there is no doubt he doesn't know, he always knows." Pein said, sighing as he raked a hand through his spiky orange locks, his face contorting into distaste as he paced back and forth, a rather uncharacteristic trait for the powerful man, who considered himself a god.

"He could take her to his village, protect her." Konan said, watching her lover's face, gauging his reaction, which she expected would be blind fury. Instead, it was simply thoughtful; he would only allow his emotions to show around her, his follower and angel.

**….**

_Okay, now, that seems a bit irrelevant, doesn't really matter how you see it at this point, but that explains the next part, how a two-month old pink haired child with a handsome bounty already over her head, was taken by Jariya, may he rest in peace, to the village. _

…

"What is that?!" Tsunade snarled as Jariya sheepishly cradled the pink haired infant, his arms too large and awkward to properly hold the kid, he coughed to bring attention away from the pink-haired girl and back to his former teammate and fellow Sennin. "You see-"

"Jariya I swear to god if you got some poor whore pregnant I'm gunna'-"

"'Kick my ass', yeah I know, would ya' let me explain?" The white haired man growled, running a hand through his locks, Minato had just died, the fox was gone and the village was in literal ruins, he didn't need more stress on his place, and this kid just dumped a nice heap of it on his life.

"Fine. You've got ten seconds." The blonde woman grumbled, crossing her arms over her large chest as she gave the toad sage the best glare she could offer at the moment, she was pretty amazed he had even been able to find her, she was in one of the most exclusive gambling bars in the five nations, but that's Jariya for you, always popping up at the worst possible time.

He took a deep breath "IinfultratedAmeandstolethisk idwhoisthespawnofmyformertea m." He said in one heavy puff, beads of nervous sweat forming on his brow from the uncomfortable and soul-reading stare Tsunade was burning him with as he shifted the child awkwardly around in his arms once more.

Tsunade sighed, taking the small bundle from his arms and cradling it in hers before her face turned red with anger and she covered the sleeping child's small ears, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU SAY!?" She screamed, practically crushing Jariya with her tone.

He groaned and stuck a pinky in his ear to assure his ear drum hadn't been blown apart, although they were defiantly ringing. "This, _thing_" He said, motioning to the child wrapped in Tsunade's arms, not missing the daggers she stared into him when he referred to the child as such, "Is what I found when I infiltrated a base in Ame when in search for Nagato and Konan, this is apparently their child." He grumbled the last part, noticing how the glare was swept from Tsunade's face, her eyes looking in disbelief from the child back to Jariya; oh how he _wished_ it wasn't the truth.

"You're kidding." Tsunade whispered breathlessly, she couldn't believe it herself-

"No, I'm not, I just-"He groaned, running a hand through his silver locks "I'm going to take her back to the village, but I had to find you… there's some sort of seal on her… I just needed… I needed you to make sure she didn't have the… you know." He dragged on, looking more and more uncomfortable as the minutes passed.

"You wanted me to check if she had the Rennigan." She whispered, her hand glowing green as she closed her eyes and purged her chakra through the small child's body, wincing at the amount of chakra in the child, her reserves as an infant were some things most adult Jonin can't boast. She then hit some kind of seal, located behind the child's eyes; she looked down curiously at the child, "It- I don't know. The seal won't allow me to look… She should be blind; it's cutting off connections to the eyes." Tsunade whispered.

Jariya sighed loudly, "Wake it up."

"Jariya, she's a child, not an 'it' you bastard-"

"Tsunade, just wake her up and look at her eyes! You'll understand." He whispered, pinching the bridge of his nose as he stopped pacing, Kami he needed sake right now.

Tsunade looked warily down at the child as she softly send a small spike of chakra into the child, and jumped slightly as it opened it's eyes, the irises were gold, bright, yellow gold, like the sun, with specks of emerald green in them, she lacked a pupil, it was like looking into deep depths of gold and emerald gems, it was beautiful, mesmerizing, captivating-

"Tsunade!" Jariya called her out of whatever trance she was in, the woman snapped out of it and lazily looked up to meet the toad sage's strange look. "Do you see them? She has no pupil and the color- it's just like Konan's…" He whispered, pacing once more.

"You have to take her to the village, they won't look for her there… Jariya, swear to me you won't let that damned village torture her, don't let them know..." She whispered, her eyes showing sorrow for the small child.

"Tsunade, I have to tell the third… He has to know, Pein and Konan are forming a league, from what I know they already have two members." He sighed, his heart ramming against his ribs, he should have left that damn kid be… it's just, he couldn't. He didn't need for a child to be raised by them, they… they'd lost their minds!

"I… I'll do what I can." He sighed after a few moment's of silence, watching how Tsunade's almond colored eyes softened.

"I know you will."

…**.**

_You know, funny thing, Jariya actually told me about this day, in a letter he sent me via one of his toad minions upon his death, that was the one thing about my past that I didn't have to try and figure out myself… pitiful isn't it? Never in a thousand years would I imagine Tsunade to have been the one to look at the seal first._

Well actually, that's a lie.

Nothing surprises me anymore.

…

"She's probably a spy."

"A beast, just like all Akatsuki."

"As evil as the rest of them."

"Probably so fucked up in the head she couldn't tie a shoe."

"She was born a murderer, I feel it."

"Probably worse than that damn fox kid."

"Yeah, at least we know the kitsune is evil, this one wears a pretty face to hide it."

All the things the Jonin would say about her, all the things they whispered as the pink-haired orphan would walk by. They hated her. They thought she was a wolf in sheep's clothing, a spy sent to destroy the village from the inside out. They resented her, but there was one person who believed in her no matter what.

"Oh, Hello Sakura. What did you think about the academy?" Sarutobi questioned the small pink haired girl who had come bouncing into his office, a bright smile on her five-year old face as she came to stand around the other side of his desk.

"The kids weren't so nice… but that's okay! I'm a ninja, so I shouldn't care what people think anyway!" She grinned, her beautiful honey-gold eyes lighting up with emerald glitter behind her dark tinted glasses.

Sarutobi offered a bright smile to the young girl before ruffling her silvery-pink locks with a soft laugh, "Ah-ah, you aren't a ninja yet, little one." He said, watching how her face fell considerably.

"But one day… you'll be one of the best."

**X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X**

**I have no comment. BWAH.  
Read & Review, don't be a dick.  
Urrr. I'll update soon if you do.  
C'mon, do et.**

-TobiIsMyName


	2. Mute

_**Misfortune **_

**I DO NOT OWN NARUTO, I SWEAR. **_****_

(A/N: **I really like this story. I really do. Makes me feel cool. Anywhoo, I decided last night that I might make a cover picture for this fic like I did with 'Madness Contagion' I'll get right on that, I like when the cover for the fic shows what the main character looks like, always a pleasant find for me. If you have any questions of suggestions, PM me.)**

'**Inner Sakura**_'_

'Sakura's thoughts'

_Chapter One; Mute_

…**.**

_Okay, I skipped ahead a bit, but I bet you remember this part, don't you Naruto? The day me you and… him became a team. Kami, I think back to this day almost every waking second. It was the best and worst day of my life._

The day I realized I wasn't alone. 

…**.**

**BZZZZZZZZZZZZZING! BZZZZZZZZZZZING!**

A mess of pink hair appeared beneath a bundle of crimson sheets and the owner of the candyfloss locks looked up to stop her alarm clock, it was seven AM, and she needed to hurry and get to the academy or else she would be so, so late, _again._

**We better stop being late, Iruka almost blew a gasket last time. **

"Yeah, yeah." The pinkette grumbled, throwing the silk sheets from her body as she made her way into the bathroom of her one-bedroom apartment, which she paid for herself, via her job at the hot springs, which she had to beg tooth and nail for considering every damn person in this village wants to rip her head off and set it on a pike like some kind of horror story prize.

Yeah, talk about hateful ass people. She peeled off her tight black tank-top, sticky with sheen of sweat from the nightmares privy to her awakening, she could never remember them fully, however her memory was quite spotty, it always had been for as far as she could- or couldn't- remember. As she climbed into her shower she shivered at the not-freezing-but-not-warm-enough-for-comfort water. The water heater in this building of this apartment complex sucked, and by that I mean, completely and utterly _sucked_, she lived in what one would call the 'highly underfunded' side of the village.

She washed the grime out of her mid-thigh length pastel locks, closing her honey-colored eyes as she felt the filth from yesterday's work being washed away. A light tune filled the steamy bathroom as she hummed her voice beautiful and mesmerizing although no one, excluding the Third Hokage, has ever heard it.

That's right, _no one_, from the day she's started the academy, and she hasn't uttered a single word or sound, not even once. Almost everyone just assumed she was a mute, and hell, she may as well have been. She doesn't know why she doesn't talk, just something in her makes her resent every single person she comes in contact with. She just can't help it. Her mistrust in them could have been caused by being lynched as a child, beaten within an inch of her life, having her landlord allowing people into her home to destroy her few belongings, until she finally figured out how seals work, to which her civilian landlord couldn't get past.

Score one for Sakura.

She shut off the water and shivered, reaching for a shabby white towel that hung over the shower rod, it wasn't great, but got the job done. Hell, that could probably apply to anything in her home. The one thing she could say wasn't falling apart were her shoes, considering she only wore them when she knew she had to, she hated shoes, she loved the feeling of the earth beneath her feet, the feeling of sloshing around in puddles, although she would never do this in front of another human being, she did quite enjoy it.

She toweled off quickly, fumbling to her dresser as she had tripped over one of her shoes which was carelessly thrown onto the floor, as she made it to her small dresser, the wood peeling with age, and slipped on a pair of black panties and wrapped some bindings around her developing breasts, her long hair looking even longer since wet, almost touching her kneecap.

She groaned loudly upon hearing something crash to the floor in her kitchen, and sighed when a piece of glass from her now broken window, courtesy of a rock that had flown through it, as her amber eyes shifted around the floor she watched the blood pool beneath her feet. Great. Just what she needed, more reason to be late.

**….**

_Errr…. Let's skip this forward a bit, otherwise we'll be here all day, and neither of us certainly have time for that, with the village being blown to bits and mobs of angry people looking for me._

…

A tan-skinned man stood before his academy class, looking up for the fifth time to the wall clock, _She's nearly twenty minutes late. _He thought as he tapped his foot against the floor in agitation, most of the students looking ready to kill someone, excluding Shikamaru Nara who was passed out on his desk, all students used to her being late, although that didn't take away the irritation.

Iruka's chestnut colored eyes glanced over to the wall clock once more, _She has five more minutes before-_

A loud slam echoed through the room and multiple heads turned to the student that has just entered, Iruka felt a smirk touch his tanned face as he looked over his student, Sakura.

She stood in her usual clothing, a hooded cloak that touched her knees buttoned all the way to the collar by white buttons, her thin legs covered completely by white wrappings, her mid-thigh length hair pulled up into two pigtails, per usual, and her bangs fanned across her forehead, her eyes covered with glasses so pitch black it was a miracle she didn't crash into everything around her, her standard leaf headband tied around her throat, shimmering in the florescent lights of the classroom as she lazily made her way to a seat between the blonde haired Uzumaki, his face as red as a tomato as soon as she sat down, and the Uchiha boy who looked a little surprised himself.

Iruka was a bit surprised himself, she usually seated herself in the back of the room, shying away from every single student, the mute girl was infamous for keeping to herself- and _other reasons_ that he was not to speak of.

He began calling off the standard teams, all picked for reasons he knew, yet the students didn't, Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yaminaka and Choji Akimichi because their fathers made a great team for interrogation. Hinata Hyuga, Shino Aburame and Kiba Inuzuka for tracking and rescue. And then there's Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki and… Sakura… _Search and Destroy._

But the students certainly didn't need to know that, so when his knucklehead blonde student burst out with a question as to why a 'great ninja like him' had to be placed on a team with Sasuke Uchiha, Iruka merely responded it had to do with test scores. Brilliant cover-up.

_**(A/N: **_**Pov Switch, yo.)**

Sakura thrummed her fingers against the surface of her desk in annoyance, white gloves covering her hands as she peered through her glasses, some thought she couldn't see through them, fucking morons. They were like a double-sided mirror, the people around her couldn't see into them, but she could sure as hell see out of them.

**Bad mood, still? Jeez, it's like a broken record with you. **

_Shut up. _She retorted bitterly to her other half before her gold eyes scanned around the room, noticing the blonde beside her was looking at her in amazement as if she had done something incredulous, she doesn't speak to these people, mind you, so she simply raised an eyebrow in question.

"Sakura-Chan," He whispered, using a hand to cover his mouth as he spoke, but his whisper was practically silent screaming so it didn't really matter, who was he hiding his words from anyway? The only people in the room were her and Sasuke. "I know you can't talk and everything, but why do you wear those glasses? I know you aren't blind… I've seen you on the training grounds." He grinned, his pretty caecilian eyes sparkling.

She turned her head, hoping he would simply stop talking or something, usually people got tired of trying to get her to respond and went away, everyone always did. But what she didn't know at the time, was that Naruto was anything but normal, and he would be damned if he gave up.

She flinched as something was pushed up beneath her hand; a slip of paper, pink dusted her cheeks lightly as she looked from the grinning blonde to the note beneath her slender porcelain fingers.

_**I know you can write. **_It read. Sakura stared at it in awe for a moment; a normal person wouldn't have ever gone this far to talk to her, probably because no one really had a desire to know what she would say, just kick her hard enough to see if they could make her scream.

She took a soft, unheard breath as the mewled over weather or not she should respond. Should she? They were on a team now… but she didn't have much experience in conversation, if you exclude the voice in her head, but surely that would show how pathetic her social life really is if at her age she still has an imaginary friend, or a very, very prolonged mental illness. In her position, both were highly possible.

_**My eyes are sensitive to sunlight. **_She wrote back, amusement dancing in her eyes as she pushed the note to the blonde, who looked utterly amazed that she had responded. With a big smile he began excitedly scribbling down on the paper, Sasuke looking like he could care less if either of them turned to ash right before his eyes.

_**Oh. Well, why don't you ever try to talk to anybody? **_

She arched a thin pink eyebrow at him, silently as always, a ghosting question floating in the air, before the blonde blushed and scribbled out his former note, re-writing it.

_**You know what I mean… you never really tried to be friends with anyone or anything. **_

She stilled at his words, she was well aware they were true. But… now that she thought about it, it did seem strange. Although most of the kids gave her hateful glances around the village, no one had truly resented her in the academy, well, if you don't count the teasing she received as a child. She had too many things to do outside of the academy, working to support herself and her home, training to become strong, juggling around with whatever group of people that were trying to lynch her, repairing or replacing things the villagers had destroyed, yup, she didn't have time for friends.

She was about to respond with some half-assed excuse when the door opened, and a head of silver hair appeared, it was their Jonin-Sensei, Naruto was quick to jump up and stupidly scold him on how late he was, the pinkette was sure he was well aware of how late he actually was. The lower half of his face and left eye were obscured from vision due to his slanted headband and mask, but Sakura didn't think much of it, she hid some of her face as well, although her eyes really were very sensitive to light, but that could be explained by the heavy sunglasses she had worn most of her life and the dim lighting in her home.

His visible eye scanned over the three students before him, "Come on." He sighed, his hands still buried in his pockets as Sasuke pushed out his chair and followed, equally as silent and brooding before, to which Naruto made a comment about 'stick up the ass' in direction to Sasuke, nudging Sakura's side and nearly giving her a small heart attack, considering most people that touched her had pure intent to kill.

She sighed and wiped out the ruffles on her cloak, following behind the group of men silently, keeping a safe distance from all three, her shielded eyes warily watching the silver-haired man, who had yet to gain a shred of her trust. Trust didn't exist in the ninja world, which was rule number one; anyone at any moment could turn on you.

Her golden eyes scanned his every movement, every quirk or twitch or step. She knew he could feel her watching him, if not her just the feeling of someone boring holes into his back with their stare, but he should understand the most that trusting anyone could lead to imminent death.

Her cloak flittered around her as the group reached the roof of the academy, where Kakashi had seated himself on a set of steps placed before him, while the three preteens took a seat on a conveniently placed bench-like slab of concrete before the set of steps.

"So… why don't you tell me a bit about yourselves, seeing as we'll be working around one another for quite some time." He said, his visible charcoal eye crinkling, an indication when he was smiling, weather it was genuine or not was debatable.

"Like what?" Naruto questioned with a yawn and a stretch, before resting back and staring at him with big, curious blue eyes that sparkled freely with excitement at finally being a genin, a low rank, yeah, but he didn't care, it was one step closer to being Hokage.

"Likes, dislikes, hobbies, aspirations." Kakashi sighed, drawling it out like a chore before his eye narrowed in thought, going along through the kids curiously, before pointing to Sasuke, "You first."

The Uchiha sat in a thoughtful stance, his fingers interlocked beneath his chin as his deep onyx pools stared forward. "I like few things and dislike many things. I don't have my aspirations, but I _do_ have a dream, a dream to kill a certain man." He stated lowly, his voice a cool monotone, and for some reason, it made Sakura's chest clench up, it was too familiar, she remembered it from somewhere, not the voice, just the way he talked, his cool monotone, it was eerie, and she didn't ponder on it long.

Next was Naruto, who chattered on about his favorite kinds of ramen and other ramen related things, and then came his dream… and Sakura noticed Kakashi's eyes widen a bit. It took everything I had not to scoff at his silly dream, becoming a Kage… a desk job, paperwork, hard decision, taken off the field. Sakura couldn't think of a worse fate than not being able to train and become stronger, and then test her strength against her enemies, and she surely had many enemies already, she excelled at making them.

Kakashi's eyes came to rest on the pinkette, and she could feel his intense gaze, he must have known she was the one staring at him, "What about you?" He said finally, seeming to grow tired of her silence.

She remained silent, much to his annoyance as she could tell; they had entered an intense staring match just when Naruto decided to intervene with a bit of gloriously false information (Though at the time for him, it was true.) "She's mute." He spoke softly, before tugging a piece of paper from his jacket and handing it to the pinkette, who arched an eyebrow at him, "Thought you'd need it." Was his response along with a wide grin as he shoved the paper towards her along with a pencil.

She sighed and quickly scribbled down some information before handing the paper over to Kakashi, who seemed to take it upon himself to read it aloud, causing a light pink blush to dust her cheeks.

"My name is Sakura. I like rain, I dislike inequality, and my hobbies and aspirations are none of your concern." He read aloud, his voice cool and collected, although amusement danced in his voice as he wordlessly allowed his eye to scan over us once more.

"My first impression of you three is not an admirable one. Meet me at training ground ten tomorrow, where we will have our very first, and probably last training session together." He smiled; once again the only indication would be the crinkling of his eye and a toss of his mask.

Naruto's expression was puzzled, and while Sasuke's face didn't change from a collected stoic, the killing intent in his aura was testable. "Whadda' you mean?" Naruto questioned, cocking his head to the side and scratching his blonde locks curiously.

Kakashi offered another smile before burying his hands in his pockets once more, turning around, his back facing the three genin, "Oh, don't worry about it. See you three at seven o'clock sharp. Oh," He stilled as if he remembered something, before lazily peering over his shoulder at the three, namely Naruto, "Don't eat any breakfast, I don't feel like watching any of you vomit."

**X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X**

**Dude. Dude. Dude. I feel like a shitty author, no one's even reviewed yet.  
I AM A FAILURE! I FAILURE! ASYMETRICAL GARBAGE.  
*Curls into corner with gun to head***

-Tobiismyname


	3. Bell Test

_**Misfortune**_

**I DO NOT, NOR HAVE I EVER CLAIMED TO OWN NARUTO.**

**(A/N; I. AM. A. .)**

_Chapter Two; Bell Test_

…**..**

_Kami, I remember that morning, I was so nervous. I didn't know what to expect. I saw the underlying message in Kakashi's words, either he would literally train us to death or get us sent back to the academy, at the time, the thought of not being able to become a ninja would be worse than death to me. I spent my entire childhood training myself to death, reading every scroll over three times as to assure myself I could do it correctly, I didn't know there was anything more._

**…..**

The wind bristled through the cool morning air as an annoyed blonde sat cross-legged on the surface of the red bridge just outside of the training grounds Kakashi had wanted them to meet at, his stomach rumbling loudly as he groaned, banging his head against the railing repetitively in annoyance. Sasuke simply rolled his eyes at his teammate, staring off into the distance. It was nearly eight o'clock, they'd been waiting for an hour and neither their pink haired teammate nor their sensei had shown up.

"What if Sakura-Chan got kidnapped on the way here?"

"Hn. Doubt it."

"What if she got attacked by enemy ninja?"

"No, dobe."

"What if-"

Growing sick of his stupid teammate he sighed and cracked him atop the head for good measure, "She was late everyday to the academy, dobe. She probably overslept or something." The Uchiha sighed, returning to his lazy stance of leaning on the railing of the bridge, staring at a crow that circled the sky, his onyx eyes narrowing dangerously at the putrid creature, he hated crows. He hated them for good reason.

The sound of soft footsteps pulled Sasuke from his intense glaring as he watched the insanely small, frail looking girl slowly make her way toward them, the air flowing through her long, light locks, her eyes hidden per usual by her dark blind-person glasses. He snorted and turned his head from the alabaster-skinned girl as she came to stand on the bridge beside Naruto, whose eyes lit up the second she came into view.

"Hi, Sakura-Chan! You took so long; you left me here with the teme." He whined with a light-hearted frown, although nothing seemed to keep his frown in place for long because in a few moments a smile broke through and he handed the pinkette a piece of paper, before blushing and realizing he in fact, did not bring a piece of paper, he turned to apologize but in his face now hung a neatly folded origami swan, extended from the pinkette's hand, Naruto's smile was practically blinding as he pulled the small swan into his hand and eyed it, "That's so cool, Sakura-Chan, you did it so fast!" He chuckled.

She covered her mouth with a hand as a smile touched her face and Naruto presented more pieces of paper, pleading with her that she teach him. Sasuke soon came to sit beside the pinkette and watch the two converse, a comfortable hour for Sasuke, oddly enough. He himself had folded a swan on first try, Naruto however, ended with a pile of defective things that probably couldn't even be counted as any kind of bird, and his finishing result was a poorly created duck-looking swan and multiple paper cuts. Sakura however, had created a pile of complete and flawless swans, a small smile even touching her lips. Sasuke wandered why she didn't smile more, it looked… nice, on her.

At that moment, a puff of smoke appeared along with a head of gravity defying silver hair. "Yo." Was Kakashi's greeting along with a lazy wave as he eyed his three pupils, and curiously looked at the piles of papers along the ground around them, "Doing something interesting?"

"You're late!" Naruto growled, ignoring his question completely as he pointed an accusing finger at the Jonin, who looked less than impressed at the outburst as he lazily sighed and began walking in the direction of the training field.

…

The three stared wide-eyed at the man before them as the information of their test sank in, if they didn't retrieve the bells, they would all be sent back to the academy, if the bells were retrieved, the two that had managed to capture the bells would remain genin and the third person who wasn't able to gain a bell, would be sent back to the academy. Sasuke and Naruto were determined to be one of the ones to capture a bell, but Sakura was lost in thought.

_Something isn't right here. _

**Yeah, I know. They put us on teams of thee for a reason, for balance. If one of us fails, we should all fail. And how does he think that one of us will even be able to touch him?**

_I don't know. I'm missing something, I feel it. _

**Wait! That's just it; **_**one**_** of us can't get the bells from him…**

Sakura's eyes widened with realization, _but_ _all three of us would though. _

**However there are only two bells, are you thinking what I'm thinking? **

_Diversion from the real goal of the test. _

**Teamwork. **

Sakura sighed as Kakashi set the timer, looking around to find that her and Sasuke had swiftly went to hiding, yet Naruto remained in the clearing, the groaned, Sasuke was halfway across the training grounds, hiding in a bush, and Naruto was getting his ass kicked. This was _not_ a good way to present their teamwork.

Sakura's eyes scanned the area around her, she was currently seated high in a surrounding tree, she needed to get to Sasuke and tell him of the objective of the test somehow, but she wasn't sure yet. She began scaling the forest, using the tree branches as footholds as she made her way to the Uchiha, before gracefully leaping down beside him, he didn't flinch a her presence, as expected, he'd heard her coming, her footsteps to light and pronounced to be the Jonin's, but only because she allowed them to sound so.

He eyed her in annoyance as she held a finger to her lips in a sign to keep silent, before motioning back to the clearing where Kakashi now stood, reading some kind of orange book, Sakura looked around before spotting a twig sitting on the ground, and then pointing down to the dirt before them, Sasuke eyed it warily as Sakura began scratching letters into it's surface, briefly as possible, hoping her understood, but having the faith that the oh-so-smart Uchiha would.

'Bells Diversion, goal is teamwork, must find Naruto'

He looked thoughtful for a moment, before nodding and motioning for her to follow as he began crawling behind the thick bushes, using them as coverage, although Kakashi could most likely sense them coming a mile away even with their chakras masked.

Sakura chewed on her lower lip, the sun starting to make her slightly dizzy, she never did well in the sunlight, hence why she wore so much clothing to cover her sensitive skin, it soaked in too much vitamin D, therefore causing sickness, and why she preferred cloudy weather so much, it was easier on her, her eyes were more than quite sensitive with sunlight, not that she couldn't see, she could, not well, but she managed, it would merely cause a brain-splitting headache and watery eyes.

Ah, back to the situation as hand. We had found Naruto, tied up by the ankles over a secondary trap that he would fall right into if not maneuvered around, but Sasuke had a solution for that, he shoved against the blonde, who growled in protest, and as he swung sideways, a kunai swiftly flying by and cutting him free, courtesy of the pink haired beauty, Naruto came crashing to the ground in a whining, grumbling heap.

He rubbed his sore bottom and looked angrily at Sasuke, "I coulda' done that myself."

Sasuke snorted, "Yeah, you were doing such a good job of it, dobe."

"YOU KNOW WHAT YOU BASTARD?!"

_**THWACK!**_

The two males grumbled and rubbed their foreheads where two pebbles had smacked against them, looking over to the pink haired girl who's glasses glared off the sunlight, a few pebbles in her hand saying 'I did it once, I'll do it again.'

They both grumbled and crossed their arms in perfect sync; it would have been comical at any other given moment. Sakura inclined her head to Naruto, her covered eyes meeting with Sasuke's as a sign for him to fill Naruto in on the newfound information, which is what he did, albeit begrudgingly, but he did it nonetheless, and in the end, that's all that matters, ne?

She motioned with her hands for them to fallow her, and they did, she and Sasuke talked over a fighting plan as Naruto nodded and followed along, Sakura once again communicating via stick and dirt, and Sasuke using one syllable grunts or nods in agreement, throwing in his two-cents from time to time.

They had come to a decision, when Sasuke and Sakura had finally come to the confirmation the Kakashi in the clearing was in fact, not a clone, they sent Naruto out to run him around in circles for a while, as to not arouse suspicion, that they hoped he hadn't yet caught on to, but they all knew too well that they were unpredictable and clever to have their movements predicted. Even Naruto knew that much.

As Naruto ran Kakashi in circles with his multiple shadow clone jutsu, an envious one at that. Sasuke and Sakura prepped for their plan, a very complex one which would be pushing at their mere skills already, but Sasuke and Sakura were prodigies, in both intelligence and skill, as they watched Naruto give the symbol, his many shadow clones disappearing in one moment, Sakura's hands flurried with hand seals, and she disappeared, a kunai in place of her body, her… henjutsu of sorts. Sasuke picked up the kunai and five other appeared in her hand, he leapt from his cover in the trees and confronted the silver-haired Jonin.

Sakura's mind raced with many possibilities of errors that she could have possibly made during this plan, her mind just worked like that, focusing on the worst case scenario, although it was always better to be too prepared than under prepared, she supposed.

Sakura snapped back to reality, damn it! She couldn't afford to lose focus now! Sasuke and Kakashi were talking, but she didn't care for the words, Sasuke's hand would clench as a symbol their sensei had caught on, the signal they had been discovered, and he had yet to do so. Soon, Sasuke was moving, fast.

She was thrown along with the other projectile kunai, cursing Sasuke to hell and hoping they would be going a little ways before her, she didn't need her surprise attack to be ruined by a kunai to the back or something_, that_ would certainly be a setback.

As she came inches from the Jonin her henj disappeared, and she was crashing into a surprised Jonin, too close to give him room to move as she drew a kunai, he was on his back, wrestling to get her off him, she made a reach for the bells, but as her hands brushed against one, she was sent flying, and a Naruto whom had tried to catch the airborne girl, and ended up being beneath her on the ground, blushing like a madman while the pinkette simply groaned and pushed off him, the timer going off.

They had failed, she grit her teeth as to keep from snarling like a hellcat. So she settled for pinching the bridge of her nose and grinding her teeth, her jaw making hellish cracking noises as she tried to keep her anger to a minimum, Sakura was a calm, level-headed person, until you threatened her dreams.

Her fist slammed into an apposing tree trunk, the impact so harsh she was sure she had crashed a knuckle or two in the process. It cracked through the surface of the tree with ease, she could feel the discomfort radiating off her blonde-haired teammate. She was fucking pissed, and now she was even angrier because now everybody had seen her in a moment of weakness. She yanked her gloved hand from the tree and shoved her hands in her pockets, the sun catching the surface of her black tinted glasses as she walked over to the boards, where Naruto had been tied up moments ago by Kakashi, Sasuke and her took seats on opposite sides of him, preparing to eat, Sakura really wasn't hungry, she'd had a decently sized breakfast, she wasn't stupid, it wasn't an order that she didn't eat anything, merely a recommendation that she wouldn't take because she knew better.

She looked up to Naruto, who was mewling on about being 'fine' and that 'he could take it' although his noisy stomach _clearly_ disagreed. Sakura looked down at her untouched bento and sighed, holding it up before Naruto's face, he looked at it longingly for a moment, when she realized it probably looked like she was taunting him, considering his arms were tied up. She gently used her chopsticks to feed him some rice, Sasuke catching the drift and offering some of his own as well.

And that's when, everything went to hell. A puff of smoke signified their entry to its gate, which would make Kakashi-Sensei the preverbal reaper to drag us there, 'hell' being the academy, that is.

"YOU DISOBEYED MY ORDERS."

Sakura simply shrugged, and looked to Sasuke so he could further explain what she didn't have the words to, he looked up at the Jonin, "If we had a second chance at the test, as you had informed after you tied Naruto up, he would only drag us down if he wasn't properly nourished." Sasuke stated bluntly, his onyx eyes so intense they seemed to be able to burn holes in Kakashi.

"YOU ALL….. Pass."

Sakura grinned despite herself; she knew it all along, lovely. She wouldn't have to decapitate this man in his sleep after all, Sasuke didn't look stunted, as he had trusted Sakura's judgment, and Naruto was grinning so hard you'd think his whiskered face would split in half.

Kakashi cut Naruto down lazily, watching the blond crash to the ground rather ungracefully, before in one swift movement grabbing Naruto by the scruff of his neck and putting a kunai to his throat. "Now, Sakura kill Sasuke or Naruto-"

He didn't get to finish that sentence because Sakura had crashed on top of Sasuke, kunai at his throat, his onyx eyes the size of saucers. Although somehow, Sasuke and Naruto understood the unspoken language from the mute pink haired girl, it said 'Release Naruto or Sasuke dies.'

Kakashi seemed to get the gist of it and helped Naruto off the ground, and Sakura did the same with Sasuke, a small smirk touching his lips despite the fact that Sakura had a kunai to his throat only moments ago. Kakashi himself look impressed, normally he would have been appalled by the cleverness of the girl, she had known Kakashi wouldn't take one life for another, more so that he wouldn't have killed Naruto in the first place, he was also impressed by the communication the tree had, despite the lack of eyes to read or a voice to hear from the pinkette, it was quite impressive indeed.

"I have one lesson that the three of you should take to heart." Kakashi spoke up, his visible eye clouding over with memories and sadness and shame at his past before he continued,

"Those who abandon their village are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash."

…**..**

_I really, really did take his words to heart that day. I really did. And now, I don't know if I consider myself trash, I never truly betrayed anyone, or abandoned anyone… more like… I was torn from everyone, but the person doing the tearing was reality._

Now that I look back at it, I realize my entire fucking life was a fantasy, a pretty lie to cover the truth.

…**.**

**X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_**

**Aaa yes, back to the authors insane ramblings. I've put up… roughly three updates, a cover photo and a decent story in one night, received no reviews, and my heart is broken, but soul reaper is on right now, and I'm going to go sulk right now because I'm a FAILURE, GYAH!**

**-Tobiismyname**


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